I Am Defiance I Am Sacrifice
by Earthnfarie
Summary: A one shot of the final battle with Naraku, and the moments afterwards in which Kagome makes her wish. Warning Character death. No pairings. Rated for language.


**I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I profit from the writing of this.**

Kagome rose, unfeeling of her pain. She was numb after all she had seen. The final battle with Naraku had come and gone. Now she was alone in a field of death. She stared ahead, unseeing of the carnage they lay around her. There were so many dead, demons and humans alike. She took a step, heedless of the blood that soaked through her shoes. She clutched her bow and katana as she walked through the bodies. She was searching.  
She was alone.

He had come on her birthday. She was turning nineteen. They were far from the well, so Kagome celebrated with her feudal family. She didn't mind. She felt more comfortable, more at home, here with her friends. Her friends in her era didn't understand her like they did. They weren't as close as her and her friends here were. How could they be? After all they had been through together Kagome felt a kinship with these people than with her blood family. But they were a blood family in their own way weren't they? Each of them had spilled blood for the others, each had sacrificed.  
Four years after falling into the well, he came. He came for her.

She was the first to feel the potent sense of the end. She was the first to know he was coming. She rose, and gazed into the distance forgetting all of those around her. She tried to understand why she felt this- why now. She sent herself out toward the direction it was coming from. She knew then it was him. She opened her mouth and said the words as if they were nothing. "Naraku is coming." They thought they were ready for him.  
They were wrong.

The battle had been chaos. Naraku came himself with his hordes of demons. They seemed to kill for hours with no end. They were so outnumbered, but the slew many. Slowly though one by one they fell. Little mistakes were their undoing. They killed so many, but in the end they killed themselves. Even the mighty Sesshomaru had fallen- though it was by her hand. Kagome watched her friends fall, and saw the exhaustion in every one of them. She was desperate, and fired the fateful arrow that had decided the battle. She watched as it was true to her target only for him to move aside. Then it landed it a sickening accuracy into the heart of the Taiyoukia. It pulsed, and it was over for him.  
She had sealed him.

The fighting continued despite her horror. She tried to get to him to free him, but Naraku kept her busy. Before she knew it they were the only ones left. She had looked around distraught. They were all dead or dying. No one could help her now. It was just she and the evil hanyou. He lashed out at her with his tentacles, and she had fought them off. She had set her bow aside once she had sealed Sesshomaru, and instead fought the bastard with her katana infused with her holy power. She easily purified his flesh, and left behind residual energy to insure he couldn't reassemble. But as much as she hacked away at the hanyou he didn't seem to mind. There was always more, and he wasn't tiring like she was. Kagome knew this was the end. It was him or her. She made her decision after looking around at the death surrounding her. She looked at the dead faces of all those that had sacrificed their ultimate prize for her; they had sacrificed their lives. It would not be in vain. She knew that she could make the same sacrifice. She straightened up and looked at Naraku in the eye. She sheathed her weapon. She watched as his slimy tentacles shot toward her, and grunted as they penetrated her body. She coughed up blood as he dragged her to him.  
This was the end.

"Ku Ku Ku little miko. I didn't think it would be so easy to break your spirit." He whispered in her ear. He licked the blood from the corner of her mouth reveling in the taste of it. Victory was indeed sweet. He loved how dull her eyes looked. She was so much like Kikyou in this moment. Naraku smiled at the thought he finally had his miko. He finally had Kikyou- after all her soul was in the miko's body. He sniffed her scent and pushed on her aura. He wanted to smell her death. He looked into her glossy eyes. He frowned slightly at her as he thought of how easy it was. She hadn't even fought him, just let it happen. Yes he wanted her broken, but he knew this was unlike the defiant wench that was so devoted to Inuyasha. She wasn't afraid, and he wanted to taste her fear. "Going to join all your friends in hell wench?" He asked trying to rile her.  
Kagome lifted her head to gaze coldly at Naraku. "I will not forgive you."

The sound of the hanyou's screams still rang in her head. She had purified him. She waited till her blood was all over him, and then she sent her power to rage like fire along it. He had screamed in agony, and flung her from him in order to try to stop it. It was useless. Her blood seeped into him as it burned away his flesh. It entered his veins and coursed through is body. He pulsed once, and then pink light began to peek through. His screams stopped as he finally disintegrated.  
Naraku was dead.

Kagome managed to make it to Sesshomaru collapsing only twice. Each time she rose from the filthy pools of blood and continued. She was soaked with blood. Her clothes were nothing but rags. Her hair was stiff from the drying blood. She was dying, but she was ok with it. She had defied Naraku to the last moment, and defeated the bastard. She would die with a smile on her face, and join her friends. But first she had to do something. She looked up at the sleeping lord, and thought of how much he looked like Inuyasha like this. She pulled herself up, and grasped the arrow that she had put through his heart. She took a deep breath, and tugged the arrow out. It disintegrated, and she fell.  
But she did not land.

She gazed up at the Taiyoukia who had caught her, and smiled weakly. She would pass soon. "I'm sorry Sesshomaru." He made to speak but she silenced him with a finger on his lips. She was daring as she could never be in her life. What could he do after all? She was already dead. She was just too defiant to leave without finishing her business. She smiled at his confusion he wouldn't show. His face was ever the mask. "Naraku is dead." She told him. She held up the pure, _whole_ Shikon no Tama as if to prove it. He set her in the grass, and gazed around. "All dead." She said bringing his attention back to her. "All dead," she whispered. She looked at the innocent enough jewel in her hand, and leaned back against the tree behind her. "I want you to live Sesshomaru. Live." before he could question her she held up the jewel.  
It was time.

Sesshomaru had asked her one thing before she managed to make her wish- the wish to end it all, to destroy the jewel. She had looked at him in wonder. She didn't realize that he was aware while he had been sealed. She guessed it was because she didn't want him dead or sealed. So while he was forced to remain in place paralyzed he was still fully aware of what was happening. She knew it must have been horrid for him, but she was thankful. It meant he would live. He would walk away from here whole and free. He would continue as they all could not. She favored him with the answer to his question. "Because I couldn't let them all die for nothing. I am defiance. I am sacrifice." She smiled at him sweetly. "That is why." She closed her eyes.  
She wished.

_**"I wish for balance."**_

_Kinda dark and angsty I know but it was inspired in me, and I had to write it. I came out a bit different than I had imagined, but in the end I still like it. I didn't even have to think of what her final wish would be. Nothing selfish or their sacrifices would be void- done for nothing. So what is the Shikon no Tama? A jewel created when Midorku couldn't win against the youkia she fought. An eternal battle. So what a better wish to force the destruction of the jewel, than to negate why it existed to begin with? Balance. And just think of what possibilities could come from a wish like that. Hope you enjoyed. -AJ_


End file.
